Friends & Family

Yesterday was such an awesome day that I feel compelled to write about it in an unusually open and honest way. At the end of a long day of teaching and meetings and so on, we all (this year, including me, there are 13 of us in the group!) hosted this:

We publicised it on internal chemical engineering email groups, and that facebook page. I wasn't sure about how much food to order. Pulled a century out of my hat and had the usual tea person bring 100 cups of tea and some 25 packets of biscuits (only GoodDay! because Shilpa likes that, and that only). 

I was a bit apprehensive about filling the room. It is a fairly large room. Capacity of a hundred, I think. I was preparing a mental set of sentences to say to the kids in case the audience was very thin and sparse and countable on the fingers of one hand. 

When we started, there were about 30 people, I think. By and by as the evening wore on the room was full! Full of bright eyed bushy tailed Chem Es across all years and programmes. The presentations were all good, most of all, I liked how enthusiastic everyone was about their work. 

Then we closed shop, our voices a bit high with excitement, and went to dinner, just the 13 of us of course. It was a large spread of a buffet - which I never do justice to. But I think the rest of the group definitely did! My husband and child joined us as well and no one really talked shop (I resisted the temptation, for the most part). Many jokes were cracked and photographs were taken.

The best thing was, it felt like a nice family get together! Or like the dinners we have with our friends. Only difference being that the average age was much lower last night. It was so nice and relaxed. I am looking forward to doing this often, and in our home the next time!